Awhile back I solicited feedback for a book proposal from a few friends. All of them expressed the same concern: My voice was lost in all the expert quotes. Each chapter summary featured excerpts from bestselling authors, famous psychologists, and notable philosophers. My intention was to ground my points in research and add legitimacy to...

For Forrest Gump, life was like a box of chocolates. But it could also be compared to a game of Candy Land. How we wish we could play by a unique set of rules created as we go along to protect us from harm and keep us comfortable. My daughter Katherine showed a high aptitude...

“You,” he said, “are a terribly real thing in a terribly false world, and that, I believe, is why you are in so much pain.” That quote belongs in Emilie Autumn’s psychological thriller, The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls. I used it to describe Robin Williams when he died. The comedian’s brave living inspired me to be...

The Persian poet Rumi once said that “the wound is the place where the light gets in.” Musician Leonard Cohen meant much the same in his Anthem lyrics: Ring the bells that still can ring, Forget your perfect offering, There’s a crack, a crack in everything, That’s how the light gets in. The moment we fall...

There is a scene in the movie Shrek where the limbs of the Gingerbread Man are being pulled off one by one. I felt very much like that at one point during my second pilgrimage, the time after Spain. Significant brain fog prevented me from formulating coherent sentences to be read by the public. Writing...